*** WON WON WON *** AlexY v BPS ***WON WON WON ***

[Amethyst]

Docs to follow [MENTION=61504]AlexYates[/MENTION]

need copy of claim form and copy of defence.

agreement and charges attached.

[Amethyst]

Re: *** AlexY v BPS - has entered defence

WORK IN PROGRESS

IN THE NORTHAMPTON COUNTY COURT BUSINESS CENTRE

Claim No:

BETWEEN
UK SERVICES & SUPPORT LTD
Claimant
and

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Defendant

WITNESS STATEMENT
---------------------------

I, Alexander Yates, of xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxwill state as follows:

1. I am employed as a software developer and the defendant in these proceedings. I make this witness statement in support of my Defence in this case.
2. The matters referred to in this witness statement are within my own knowledge, except where I have indicated otherwise. Where any matters contained in this witness statement are not within my own knowledge, I have stated the source of my information.
3. On September 30^th 2014 at/around 10.30am I decided to book myself an appointment to visit the passport office in Peterborough in October in order to obtain a Passport. I understood from the National Media that the Passport Office was experiencing delays in postal applications and decided that an application in person would be preferable to the uncertainty.
4. I understood that the fast track service cost in the region of £100 and that I would be able to attend the appointment and wait for my passport to be ready.
5. I used an online search engine to locate “Peterborough Passport Office Premium Service” contact details in order to book my appointment.
6. The first search result led me to www.britishpassportservices.co.uk.
7. The website offered what looked to be the service I was looking for and the cost was quoted as £117.
8. I clicked the large APPLY NOW! button on the website which led me to an online booking form. I completed this with my personal details and entered the dates which I was available to attend my appointment at The Peterborough Passport Office. This was 20th/21st/22nd October 2014.
9. I used my mouse pad to make an impression of my signature and ticked a box to confirm my details were correct.
10. The website took me to a payment page where I entered my credit card details to make the £117 payment for my passport. The page crashed and I decided to telephone the Passport Office later in the day to check the appointment had been made and whether to try again to make payment or pay when I visited the Passport Office.
11. At/around 11.30am I opened two emails from BritishPassportServices. [EXHIBIT X] [EXHIBIT X]
12. The first had been sent at 10.35am and it confirmed my online form had been received and requested payment within three working days.
13. The second had been sent at 10.54am and confirmed an appointment had been made for me at Peterborough Passport Office.
14. I checked my credit card account online with my credit card provider and found no payment had been taken.
15. At around 11.35am I decided to telephone the Passport Office to check the appointment had been made and whether the payment had gone through. I telephoned 0300 222 0000 and I explained that I had completed the online form and attempted to make payment but it had failed. The Passport Office confirmed that my appointment had been made and that I would need to make payment of £128 when I attended for my appointment. They also confirmed that the Passport Office would not ask for payment online and advised I should check my account as I may have been victim of a scam.
16. At around time I cancelled the appointment booked by UK Services and Support by emailing, texting, calling ? ( see later this seems out of sync)
    
17. At around 11.40am I telephoned the real HM Passport Office again and made my own appointment for DATE TIME ( check process - did you make second call to passport office to make appointment ??)
18. At around 11.50am I telephoned BritishPassportServices on the number ( DO YOU HAVE THIS NUMBER?) given in the confirmation email.
19. The telephone operator informed informed me I was required to pay around £60 for “services” already delivered and that it was impossible to cancel the rest of the services until the payment was received. He explained that if I delayed making payment I may have to pay more depending on whether they have provided more services by that point. I asked him to clarify, saying that despite the fact that I was very clearly telling him I did not wish to receive more services they would continue to provide them anyway, and bill me for them, unless I paid £60. He confirmed that this was the case.
20. The telephone operator stated that if I wanted to cancel I had to text a code to a 5 digit number. Having recently been victim of a separate spam texting scam that cost me £3 per text message received and based on my experience so far with this site I refused because I did not trust that my details would not be abused.
21. The telephone operator appeared to become angry as he raised his voice. He stated he could not cancel the order until I paid the £60 fee and that they would continue to deliver services to me, increasing the cost, until I paid them. I told the man that I simply did not believe that this was legitimate and that I would not text any number. I told him very clearly that I did not want any of their services and that I never intended to hear from him or his company again as I considered the matter closed.
22. At 11.53am I received an email [EXHIBIT X]from BritishPassportServices. It stated that the services had been delivered (which is denied) and demanded £117 in payment.
23. At 12.08pm I replied to the email [EXHIBIT X]and cc'd it to their complaints address: complaints@britishpassportsevices.org.uk and stated that I had not intended to use them, had cancelled any services, did not require any services and would not be making payment to them.
24. At xxxxxxx I received a telephone call from a person at BritishPassportServices to try and supply me with a ''30 minute consultation'' which I did not request. I immediately told him that I did not wish to receive this service and we ended the call in a few seconds.
25. On xx I received an email [EXHIBIT X]
26. On xx I received an email [EXHIBIT X]
27. On xx I received an email [EXHIBIT X] - any text messages ???
28. On 3rd October 2014 I received an email
29. .......
30. ......
31. On xxxxxxxxxxxxx I clicked on a link etc chagres/ invoice - any letters ??
32. ......
33. ......
34. I received the claim pack from the Northampton County Court Business Centre on xxxxxxxxxxxxx

I believe that the facts stated in this witness statement are true.

This statement has been prepared on 22nd February 2015 for any defendant in any UK court who is accused by UK Services and Support ltd, who are at the time of writing based at 12 Deer Park Rd, Wimbledon, SW19 3TL, of owing money for services relating to the booking of appointments at the passport office.
WITNESS STATEMENT FOR ALEXANDER YATES
1. I live at 64 Cyprian Rust Way, Soham, CB7 5ZE and wish to make known the details of my experience with UK Services and Support Ltd. I make this statement because I believe that UK Services and Support are fraudulently making money by systematically using the website http://www.britishpassportservices.co.uk/ to trick people into booking passport appointments through them instead of the official government website. In this statement I will explain my story and provide evidence that this is not an isolated case. This statement is true to the best of my knowledge and belief.
2. I work for a software company and configure software development systems for a living. I have also built my own website so I consider myself reasonably computer literate.
My experience using www.britishpassportservices.co.uk
3. On September 30th 2014 shortly before 10.30am I tried to book myself an appointment to visit the passport office in Peterborough for a “Premium Service”. I knew that a “Premium Service” costs a little over £100 (actually £128 it turns out) and that this would include the passport. I had 5 minutes spare before a 10.30 meeting and not expecting it to take long I Googled for something along the lines of “Peterborough Passport Office Premium Service”. The top hit was www.britishpassportservices.co.uk.
4. I was vaguely aware of news stories at the time about parts of the passport office being privatised and that it was not going well, but I did not know the details (for example, see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29376335 dated 26th Sept) so I was not surprised that the top hit (and presumably the standard booking method) was not an official government website.
5. The website offered what looked to be the service I was looking for and the cost was £117, which was close enough to what I expected to pay. I accept that had I spent more time reviewing the website I would have spotted the small print that the actual passport is not included but it is my belief that the website is specifically designed so that at first glance this is not obvious so that many people make the same mistake as myself.
6. I filled in the booking form and agreed to the terms and conditions without reading them. Since I thought I was on the normal site for booking appointments I trusted it to a certain extent and did not expect any unreasonable contract terms to be included. Again, it is my belief that the claimant is fully aware that the vast majority of the people who use their site will not read the terms and conditions because it is a well-known fact that most people very rarely do.
7. I entered my credit card details and tried to pay but the website crashed, showing an error. Having used up the few minutes I had before my meeting I naturally assumed it had not worked and went to my meeting frustrated at the fact that I was now a few minutes late for my 10.30am meeting for nothing.
8. An hour or so later I returned to my desk to see two emails. The first confirming my booking and requesting payment within three working days. This email had been sent at 10.35am and was several paragraphs long so it must have been automated. It strikes me as strange that such an email, requesting payment by invoice, would be automated for an online credit card payment. The second email, sent at 10.54am, provided the details of my appointment.
9. Since I had thought the payment had failed this is the point at which I became suspicious. I checked my account and, although I could not be sure, I did not think the money had been paid yet.
10. I did some more google-ing and discovered that I had not used the official channel after all. I called the passport office and they told me that an appointment had been booked but that I would still be expected to pay the £128 for the passport on the day. The lady on the phone advised me that the company I had used was probably a scam and that I should not pay.
11. I cancelled the appointment booked by UK Services and Support and made my own appointment directly with the passport office.
12. I then called UK Services and Support immediately and explained the mix-up. This would have been at about 11.45, barely an hour after their website crashed on me and within minutes of me reading their emails.
13. The man on the other end of the phone, who had a thick Indian accent, told me that I still had to pay sixty something pounds for “services” already delivered (in the space of an hour and fifteen minutes) and that it was impossible to cancel the rest of the services until the payment was received. If I delayed I may have to pay more depending on whether they have provided more services by that point. I asked him to clarify, saying that despite the fact that I was very clearly telling him I did not wish to receive more services they would continue to provide them anyway, and bill me for them, unless I paid £60. He confirmed that this was the case.
14. He also said that if I wanted to cancel I had to text some code to a 5 digit number. Having recently been victim of a separate spam texting scam that cost me £3 per text message received and based on my experience so far with this site I refused because I did not trust that my details would not be abused.
15. When I refused to text this number and also refused to pay the money the man got angry. He said that they could not cancel the order until I paid the £60 fee and that they would continue to deliver services to me, increasing the cost, until I paid them. I told the man that I simply did not believe that this was legitimate and that I would not text any number. I told him very clearly that I did not want any of their services and that I never intended to hear from him or his company again as I considered the matter closed.
16. Almost immediately after hanging up I received another email. The email was received at 11.53am. It stated that the services had been delivered (which is untrue since not all the services had yet been provided) and it demanded the full £117 in payment. Later on I spotted small print at the bottom of the email in a small font that said I could cancel by visiting a website which I had not seen referenced anywhere else. Later on they would tell me that I should have emailed cancel@britishpassportservices.org.uk but they had not yet mentioned in any correspondence despite me clearly telling them this is what I wished to do. They would later claim it was in the terms and conditions that I should use this email address, yet they failed to mention this either by phone or email. In fact, they had listed so many contradictory methods to cancel and simultaneously that it was impossible to cancel. It is my belief that they intentionally were trying to make it impossible for people to cancel.
17. Having not yet spotted the small print or the cancel@ email address I replied to the email and sent it to their complaints address: complaints@britishpassportsevices.org.uk. (Interestingly, the company claims they have never used .org.uk domains, which is evidently a lie as I’ve had two way conversations with them using two different .org.uk email addresses. See here: http://www.britishpassportservices.c...-coverage.html for proof). This is the exact contents of my email to them at 12.08pm on the same day (Sept 30th 2014):
18. “Thank you for your email.
I found your website misleading. I did not fully understand the product I was purchasing. I have contacted you to inform you of my mistake by phone and email within an hour.
I was under the belief that your price included the passport. It was not until I called the passport office that they told me they would still expect me to pay the full price for the passport on top of your fee.
I explained within an hour of the mistake and have cancelled the appointment. I will not be paying your fee. I believe that your website was in contravention of the clear terms set out here.
https://www.gov.uk/unfair-terms-in-s...umer-contracts
If you persist in chasing the fee I will follow the official HM.GOV guidance here:
https://www.gov.uk/complain-about-a-limited-company
I consider the matter closed.”
19. Despite the fact that I had clearly told the company, within two hours, by two different methods, that I did not want them to provide any further services they continued to try to provide “services” including a person calling me on the phone to try to provide a 30 minute consultation – I immediately told him that I did not wish to receive this service and we ended the call in a few seconds.
20. They also sent me emails, texts and automated phone messages demanding payment of the full £117.60. One email, dated October 3rd, even claimed that “It is quite unusual for a customer of ours not to know what they have paid for”. This is clearly not true, see paragraph 21.
21. There are many other reports of this website that are easy to find. For example, here is a 777 comments (at the time of writing) long thread full of others who have been tricked by the same company: http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/...Website-issues. There are also over 30 unique contributors on this discussion thread just since November 2014, all telling a similar story: http://conversation.which.co.uk/mone...e-application/. There are government petitions that call out this company specifically: https://www.change.org/p/david-camer...s-and-the-like. I have had dozens of public and/or private responses on my own blog from people who have been caught in the same way: http://workingwithdevs.com/copycat-w...port-services/. The BBC even did a feature on this precise website: See paragraph 17.
22. Given the sheer number of people who are telling the same story as me it is my belief that any reasonable company would accept that the representation of their services may be misleading, yet to my knowledge UK Services and Support have never demonstrated any efforts to make further clarifications to their website. It is also my belief that no reasonable company would continue to provide services to people who have told them very clearly that they do not wish to receive more services. Additionally, I do not believe that a legitimate company would continue to pressure people to pay for services they never used which were bought in error.
23. I accuse UK Services and Support of profiting significantly from the confusion, since many of the people on discussion forums have reported that they paid the money in order to get UK Services and Support to stop harassing them. Others have reported that they were afraid to go to court so they paid up. Given the number of cases and the amount of money involved UK Services and Support will have made many thousands of pounds out of people that never wanted the services that UK Services and Support offer.
24. I believe that the facts stated in this witness statement are true.

Alexander Yates

[Kati]

Re: *** AlexY v BPS - has entered defence

Having not yet spotted the small print or the cancel@ email address I replied to the email and sent it to their complaints address: complaints@britishpassportsevices.org.uk. (Interestingly, the company claims they have never used .org.uk domains, which is evidently a lie as I’ve had two way conversations with them using two different .org.uk email addresses. See here: http://www.britishpassportservices.c...-coverage.html for proof).

They still have the .org.uk email address at the bottom of every page I've seen! How can they deny using it when it's clearly evidenced?

[Amethyst]

Re: *** AlexY v BPS - has entered defence

lol they are just penis's.

[AlexYates]

Re: *** AlexY v BPS - has entered defence

Wow - Amethyst, I've only just seen the amount of work you've put in to help me improve my statement. Thank you so much!

I must admit - I've struggled a bit using this site and never actually managed to find this VIP thread. I really appreciate all your help and I'm sorry that I've been so rubbish at responding to your emails.

I guess, until I actually had a court date confirmed I never really expected these people would actually take it this far and I didn't want to waste time really fleshing out a proper defence until I knew it would actually be relevant.

Anyway - I now see that I'll have to actually spend some time on this and I plan to get organised when I return from holiday after the easter weekend.

Thanks again, I really appreciate this.

Alex

[AlexYates]

Re: *** AlexY v BPS - has entered defence

Hi [MENTION=6]Amethyst[/MENTION],

I'm back now and I've taken the day off o really get my head into all this BPS stuff.

Have they changed their website here?: http://www.britishpassportservices.c...-coverage.html

It now clearly states they never used .org.uk for their website but it does not deny they use .org.uk for their emails. In actual fact, they quote a .org.uk email address at the foor of the page.

Alex

[Kati]

Re: *** AlexY v BPS - has entered defence

It now clearly states they never used .org.uk for their website but it does not deny they use .org.uk for their emails. In actual fact, they quote a .org.uk email address at the foor of the page.

top of the results from my screenshot. Does that not say .org .uk ??

[AlexYates]

Re: *** AlexY v BPS - has entered defence

Brilliant :-)

[Amethyst]

Re: *** AlexY v BPS - has entered defence

When does your Witness Statement need to be filed by?

[AlexYates]

Re: *** AlexY v BPS - has entered defence

[MENTION=6]Amethyst[/MENTION]: About 10 days.

I'd like tio evidence the 150 default judgements as evidence. I think it is very important to all our cases. I know you told me where that was listed once before but it is so easy to loose track on the public forum as stuff gets lost their so easily and it takes ages to find stuff. Would you mind posting a refernce to somewhere I can evidence the 150 default judgements on this private forum?

I'm just finishing off an updated version of my statement, based on your version with a few corrections and a few extra details. I'm also beginning to catalogue all my evidence.

Thanks,

Alex

[AlexYates]

Re: *** AlexY v BPS - has entered defence

OK - how's this?

I'm going to grab some lunch back in 30 min. :-)

Alex

BETWEEN
UK SERVICES & SUPPORT LTD
Claimant

and

Alexander Yates
Defendant




WITNESS STATEMENT
---------------------------


I, Alexander Yates, of 64 Cyprian Rust Way, Soham, CB5 7ZE will state as follows:


1. I am employed as a pre-sales engineer and am the defendant in these proceedings. I make this witness statement in support of my Defence in this case.
2. The matters referred to in this witness statement are within my own knowledge, except where I have indicated otherwise. Where any matters contained in this witness statement are not within my own knowledge, I have stated the source of my information.
3. On September 30^th 2014 at 10.30am, while at work, I attempted to book myself an appointment to visit the passport office in Peterborough in order to renew my Passport so that I could go on a business trip.
4. I understood from the National Media that the Passport Office was experiencing delays in postal applications and decided that an application in person would be preferable to the uncertainty. (Exhibit A: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29073232).
5. I understood that the fast track service cost a little more than £100 and that I would be able to attend the appointment and wait for my passport to be ready.
6. All I wanted to do was use the normal methods to book my passport appointment. I used an online search engine to locate “Peterborough Passport Office Premium Service” contact details in order to book my appointment.
7. The most official looking of the top results was www.britishpassportservices.co.uk.
8. Since various BBC news reports at the time hinted that there was some privatisation in the passport office I was not expecting a government website. (Exhibit B: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29376335. Note title ‘No more privatisation’.) I was also unaware at the time that I should use a .gov.uk site since it had never been brought to my attention.
9. The website offered what looked to be the service I was looking for and the cost was quoted as £117.
10. I clicked the large “APPLY NOW!” button on the website which led me to an online booking form. I completed this with my personal details and entered the dates which I was available to attend my appointment at The Peterborough Passport Office. This was 20th/21st/22nd October 2014.
11. I used my mouse pad to make an impression of my signature and ticked a box to confirm my details were correct. While I was aware this was not a government website I believed this to be the official route for booking passport appointments so I trusted it.
12. The website took me to a payment page where I was asked for £117, which was roughly what I expected to pay for the passport, so I entered my credit card details to make the payment which I believed to be for my passport.
13. When I clicked the button to confirm the payment the page crashed. I assumed the booking failed.
14. By this point I was late for a meeting so I left my desk for about one hour.
15. When I returned at 11.30am I had received two emails from British Passport Services. (Exhibit C and D).
16. The first (Exhibit C) had been sent at 10.35am and it confirmed my online form had been received and requested payment within three working days. This was a surprise to me as I had tried to pay by credit card.
17. The second (Exhibit D) had been sent at 10.54am and confirmed an appointment had been made for me at Peterborough Passport Office.
18. I checked my credit card account and found no payment had been taken yet, but since I’d only tried to make the payment an hour earlier I was nervous that the payment might still got through.
19. I immediately searched the internet for a telephone number for the passport office and this time found the right details. I called Peterborough Passport Office directly to check if the appointment had been made and to ask them about the state of the payment. I explained that I had completed the online form and attempted to make payment but it had failed.
20. The Passport Office confirmed that an appointment had been booked for me but that I would need to make a payment of £128 directly to the passport office when I attended for my appointment for the passport.
21. They also confirmed that the Passport Office would not ask for payment online and that I may have been victim of a scam. I was advised not to pay British Passport Services.
22. I cancelled the appointment that had been booked for me by British Passport Services and booked my own appointment at a different time directly with the passport office.
23. At around 11.45am I telephoned British Passport Services on the number 0203 0120 255 which was given in the confirmation email.
24. The telephone operator informed me I was required to pay around £60 for “services” already delivered and that it was impossible to cancel the rest of the services until the payment was received. He explained that if I delayed making payment I may have to pay more depending on whether they have provided more services by that point. I asked him to clarify, saying that despite the fact that I was very clearly telling him I did not wish to receive more services they would continue to provide them anyway, and bill me for them, unless I paid £60. He confirmed that this was the case.
25. The telephone operator stated that if I wanted to cancel I had to text a code to a 5 digit number. Having recently been victim of a separate spam texting scam that cost me £3 per text message received, and based on my experience with and lack of trust for this site so far I refused because I did not trust that my details would not be abused or that I would be signed up for other ‘services’ that I did not want.
26. The telephone operator appeared to become angry as he raised his voice. He stated he could not cancel the order until I paid the £60 fee and that they would continue to deliver services to me, increasing the cost, until I paid them. I told the man that I simply did not believe that this was legitimate and that I would not text any number. I told him very clearly that I did not want any of their services and that I never intended to hear from him or his company again as I considered the matter closed.
27. At 11.54am I received two emails at once from British Passport Services that contradicted each other. One stated that not all the services had been delivered (Exhibit F) and I was eligible for a partial refund, while the other (Exhibit G) stated that all the services had been received and that I had to pay the full amount. Exhibit G also references the telephone conversation that I had had only moments before.
28. Exhibit F listed further different ways to cancel from those explained to me over the phone while Exhibit G asserted that it was impossible to cancel since all the services had been delivered.
29. Only a minute later I received another email (Exhibit H) including a receipt of all the ‘services’ which I had received.
30. In response to the allegation in Exhibit H that all the services had been delivered:
28.1.I had obviously not received any letter notification at this point as it was still only a little more than an hour after I had first visited the British Passport Services website.
28.2.I never received any emergency travel document card and do not even know what this is.
28.3.I had not received the 30 minute telephone consultation at this point, and much later when someone called me to try and deliver this service, even after I told them not to, I ended the call in a matter of seconds explaining that I had cancelled this service. (See point 32).
28.4.I was never sent any details for any queue jumping website and also don’t know why one would need this for an appointment that is booked at a specific time.
31. In response to the services that were listed in Exhibit H that were delivered:
30.1.While they did book me an appointment it was a difficult process and their website broke mid-way through leaving me in a state where I did not know if the appointment had been booked or not (see point 13.
30.2.The receipt lists a fee for using the online appointment booking form yet in one of their online videos they clearly claim never to charge people for using their online booking form: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CT0o...ndex=2&list=WL (Exhibit Q). (Please note that I have recorded this video in case British Passport Services remove it – Exhibit R).
30.3.Also, the appointment booking form crashed, so it was not sufficient quality (see point 13).
30.4.I’m not sure what ‘Checking Online Form for Errors’ refers to since the details I entered were my personal details and the date I wanted the appointment and I have no idea how they intend to check I am providing these details correctly.
30.5.With regards ‘Having 04 Passport Form Posted’ I can confirm that I was posted a form but I have received no evidence that it had actually been posted so quickly, before I had informed British Passport Services that I did not want to receive their services.
32. At 12.09pm I replied to British Passport Services via email (Exhibit J) and cc'd it to their complaints address: complaints@britishpassportsevices.org.uk and stated that I had misunderstood the services provided as I believed that the price for the passport was included. I confirmed that I had already informed the company I did not require any services and would not be making payment to them. I also threatened to contact the Advertising Standards agency if they persisted in contacting me.
33. Several weeks later (I did not make a note of the precise date) I received a telephone call from a person at British Passport Services to try and supply me with a ''30 minute consultation'' which I did not request and which I had clearly stated both by phone and by email that I did not want. I immediately told him that I did not wish to receive this service and we ended the call in a few seconds.
34. As well as the ’30 minute consultation’ British Passport Services continued to bombard me with emails (Exhibits K, L, M N, O), and text messages (Exhibit S) as well as automated telephone messages and letters (most of which I threw awa). I ignored these messages because I had promptly been very clear with British Passport services at the time but since they continued to send me contradictory information and did not listen to my very clear messages I gave up explaining to them, confident that I had done all that was reasonable to inform them that I did not wish to receive their services.
35. Upon receiving my letter of intended court action on Christmas Eve (Exhibit T) I emailed British Passport Services again (Exhibit P) and informed them that I had contacted relevant authorities to report them.

Further accusations against British Passport Services:
36. British Passport Services has makes claims on its website which are very easy to prove as false. For example, at http://www.britishpassportservices.c...-coverage.html (Exhibit U) they claim that they have never used a .org.uk address for their website, however a quick google search proves this is false. (Exhibit V is a video I have taken both of the website referenced by Exhibit U as well a proof that it is a lie.)
37. Discussion forums such as those at LegalBeagles (http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/...800#post532800 Exhibit W) and on which.com (http://conversation.which.co.uk/mone...e-application/ Exhibit X) demonstrate that there are a very large number of people who are falling into the trap set by British Passport Services. Many of which are paying when threatened with court action because they are afraid, do not have time or don’t understand that they can fight the case. For example, see the email I have received from Mylo Ofei-Kwatia (Exhibit Y).
38. I believe that British Passport Services is routinely using the tax funded small claims court to bully and threaten their customers into paying money for services that those customers did not understand and do not want. Despite the fact that Exhibits W and X demonstrate a large number of people have been misunderstanding the British Passport Services website for months they have not made any changes to their website and continue to view the appropriate response is to sue their customers for their simple, and justified, misunderstandings. I believe that the number of people who are being tricked by this website is the only evidence that is needed to prove that the website is very easy to misinterpret and that it is not reasonable for British Passport Services to continue with its policy of suing every one of their customers who misinterprets their website and is not willing to pay up.

Exhibits:
A: BBC link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29073232
B: BBC link http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29376335
C-P: Emails
Q: Youtube video “BPS does not charge for using their website” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CT0o...ndex=2&list=WL
R: My own recording of youtube video
S: Texts
T: Letter of intended court action
U: BPS not .org.uk http://www.britishpassportservices.c...-coverage.html
V: Video of Exhibit U
W: LegalBeagles: http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/...800#post532800
X: Which: http://conversation.which.co.uk/mone...e-application/
Y: Email from Mylo
Z: 150 default judgements

[EXC]

Re: *** AlexY v BPS - has entered defence

@Amethyst: About 10 days.

I'd like tio evidence the 150 default judgements as evidence. I think it is very important to all our cases. I know you told me where that was listed once before but it is so easy to loose track on the public forum as stuff gets lost their so easily and it takes ages to find stuff. Would you mind posting a refernce to somewhere I can evidence the 150 default judgements on this private forum?

I'm just finishing off an updated version of my statement, based on your version with a few corrections and a few extra details. I'm also beginning to catalogue all my evidence.

Thanks,

Alex

This? http://www.britishpassportservices.c...udgements.html

[AlexYates]

Re: *** AlexY v BPS - has entered defence

Thanks!

[Kati]

Re: *** AlexY v BPS - has entered defence

30.2.The receipt lists a fee for using the online appointment booking form yet in one of their online videos they clearly claim never to charge people for using their online booking form:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CT0o...ndex=2&list=WL (Exhibit Q).

Well done for spotting that one ... I'd never realised

[AlexYates]

Re: *** AlexY v BPS - has entered defence

Given the comment by EXC above (thank you) I've re-written point 38 and added point 39:

38. I believe that British Passport Services is routinely using the tax funded small claims court to bully and threaten their customers into paying money for services that those customers did not understand and do not want. British Passport Services even display details for all the cases they have won on their website (http://www.britishpassportservices.c...udgements.html - Exhibit Z). Again I have taken a video in case British Passport Services remove this page. Exhibit Z also supports exhibit Y since Mr Ofei-Kwatia’s name appears in this list. Despite the fact that Exhibits W, X and Z demonstrate a large number of people have been misunderstanding the British Passport Services website for months they have not made any changes to their website and continue to view the appropriate response is to sue their customers for their simple, and justified, misunderstandings. I believe that the number of people who are being tricked by this website is the only evidence that is needed to prove that the website is very easy to misinterpret and that it is not reasonable for British Passport Services to continue with its policy of suing every one of their customers who misinterprets their website and is not willing to pay up.
39. At the time of writing (13^th April 2015) the total amount of money that British Passport Services claims to have made through the small claims court is £32,220.06. (See Exhibit Z).